Gorge, a novel in progress by Michael Gullo (2026)
“Shawna, the news.”
“I’m coming.”
“What are you doing?”
“It’s the Grand Isle Ferry.”
“With binoculars?”
“It’s not running.”
“The ferry?”
“I mean, it’s not even on or whatever – the smoke stack – it’s tied up to the pier.”
“Are there cars in the lot?”
“There’s cars on the road, but I can’t see. It should be the eleven-o-clock run right now…”
“Here it is.”
“Good morning, I’m WPTZ Sports Reporter, Eric Barns, in today for Alice Kang. We have one story. The Great White North is cut off. There is zero phone service. There is zero national news coverage. None of my credit cards work, and none of yours do either, I suspect…”
“What the hell is this?”
“It’s the news, or what’s left of it.”
“a total collapse. While we still had network uplink and internet, we were able to monitor for emergency broadcast, and there has not been one. We have a bank of thirty-one stations, national cable, national affiliates, and not one station is broadcasting – at least not that we could…”
“Turn the radio on in the car.”
“And don’t act like you expected this, Kyle.”
“I’m not surprised. When the history actually happens, the headlines always miss it.”
“The headlines call everything history.”
“And that’s why I don’t watch the news.”
“way back from Rouse’s Pointe, there wasn’t even a Trooper at the speed trap. It’s not nuts out there – at least not here. I went to the bank. It’s closed. The windows aren’t broken. The only thing is the gas stations and the grocery stores. And even those are muted. Hannaford’s was packed, and there was some…”
“So there it is.”
“But why’s there no emergency messages?”
“The police station. We could go there.”
“Do you really want to?”
“City Hall.”
“Talk about a waste of time.”
“The police station’s got answers.”
“revoked our license effective 11:59 PM, April 5, 2026, and I don’t care. I broke in. So when I say there are no broken windows in town, I guess I’m lying because I wasn’t having it. Frederick and I broke in here, and we set up this broadcast, and if I’m right, there is no way for the FCC to even realize I’m doing it – and I will continue to do it until it stops. So, to recap. Last night WPTZ received a correspondence from the FCC. Pursuant to Section 706 of the Communications Act of 1934 – ninety-two inapplicable years ago – our license is cancelled. Cancelled. You cannot cancel mankind, my friends. I cannot tell you exactly why management has bent the knee to this outrageous act of government overreach, but I can tell you that I will not stand for it.”
“Don’t say what the hell.”
“Change the channel, Kyle.”
“Everything?”
“There’s no like scan button, or anything.”
“I mean, just a minute ago there were reruns.”
“Does…”
“The radio.”
“I wanna hear what he’s saying, Shawna.”
“I heard him – there’s some kind of collapse, and the government shut down communications.”
“Check the radio.”
“I was just listening to the radio in the car – It’s music.”
“Yes, but the FCC does not control Canada.”
“You stay there. Tell me if he says anything – you didn’t put away any of these groceries – Jesus, Kyle, you didn’t even get all the bags. Kyle.”
“It’s fine. It can wait a minute.”
“You came out here, and you plugged in the car, and you left groceries in the back seat.”
“I grabbed the drinks.”
“What’s that channel like NPR in Montreal…”
“88.5.”
“Come get these bags.”
“I’m listening to this.”
“What’s he saying?”
“It’s a rant.”
“Mass media ends its reign of fear and advertising as a rant. How fitting.”
-minister’s message was clear. There will be no further messages. Pursuant to the 1988 Emergencies Act, today, at noon, all television and radio stations will be turned off for the remainder of this emergency. Repeat: The Prime Minister’s office at Ottawa has released the following message. Due to an ongoing and pervasive attack from the United States, all networks are ordered systematically disconnected to preserve continuity. The US government denies all responsibility for the attack, but the connections are clear between the artificial intelligence and the office of the President. America attacked the world. That is what happened. As a result, there will be no further messages. Pursuant to the 1988 Emergencies Act, today, at noon, all television and radio stations will be turned off for the remainder of this emergency. Repeat:-
“Kyle!”
“Kyle!”
“What, Shawna? I’ll get the rest of the bags. Sto…”
“Listen to this…”
-pervasive attack from the United States, all networks are ordered systematically disconnected to preserve continuity. The US government denies all responsibility for the attack, but the connections are clear between the artificial intelligence and the office of the President. America attacked the world. That is what happened. As a result, there will be no further messages. Pursuant to the 1988 Emergencies Act, today, at noon, all television and radio stations will be turned off for the remainder of this emergency. Repeat: The…-
“That’s bullshit.”
“You haven’t been out there, Kyle.”
“I don’t mean – That announcer. It’s like Eric – She has an agenda. You can hear the official message, and her adlib interruption. She is inserting that President and America stuff.”
“How do you know that?”
“You’re the linguist – listen. The sentences don’t flow together.”
-will be no further messages. Today, at noon, all television and radio stations will be turned off for the remainder of this emergency. Repeat: The Prime Minister’s office at Ottawa has released the following message. Due to an ongoing and pervasive attack from the United States, all networks are ordered systematically disconnected to preserve continuity. The US government denies all responsibility for the attack, but the connections are clear between the artificial intelligence and the office of the President. America attacked the world. That is what happened. As a result, there will be no further messages. Pursuant to the 1988 Emergencies Act, today, at noon, all television and radio stations will be turned off for the remainder of this emergency. Repeat:-
“I hear it, but…”
“The government message is – historically accurate. Governments across all time have done just this when they were at risk from the actions of the people. During The Black Death, 1348. The city of Pistoia passed plague ordinances that banned the ringing of funeral bells and banned criers from announcing deaths, so the sound wouldn't frighten the sick and the living. The mass message causes the mass reaction, so stop the message…”
“That was Europe - seven-hundred years ago.”
“The 1918 flu. America was at war and the Sedition Act made gloomy news legally dangerous. Papers ran reassurance. Philadelphia held a war bond parade of 200,000 people in late September and had thousands dead within weeks. It's called the Spanish flu only because neutral Spain had no censor and printed the truth.”
“A hundred years.”
-no way. This is my country, I am the people. I will not sit back and allow a tyrannical…-
“He’s tenacious, I’ll give him that.”
“He’s right though. Consider Wuhan, China, January 2020. Dr. Li Wenliang was reprimanded by police for "spreading rumors" after warning colleagues about a new pneumonia. He died of it five weeks later.”
“That’s China.”
-…no fight. I call on all Americans to assemble. To make your voices heard…-
“Okay, fine. Washington, March 2020. The President told Bob Woodward on tape that he “wanted to always play it down” to avoid a panic. In the same weeks, health officials discouraged the public from buying masks, and later acknowledged the worry was shortages for hospitals. Tanzania simply stopped publishing case numbers that May.”
“So, turn off the information to keep the cattle calm.”
-will not be cowed by…-
“It’s like he’s listening to us.”
“It’s a little eerie, but this is different because there is so much information available. Historically the state in power or the elite rulers – the power structure, in whatever form it existed, has limited the flow of mass information. They can’t stop individuals, but they can stop the trade routes – the exchange routes. And that broadcast and that recording are two of those. Except, like our own Eric, that lady inserted her own politics because she was the last controller of the information, and if the message is real, she knows there will never be someone to stop her.”
“So what do we do now?”